England's Football Association was criticized by some English fans for its decision to hire Eriksson, a Swede. England is last in its World Cup qualifying group at 0-1-1, trailing Germany (2-0), Finland (1-1-1), Albania (1-1) and Greece (1-2).

``It was a good result,'' Eriksson said, ``and I think we deserved it. If you take away the first 20 minutes, we played very good football for the rest of the game. I am very pleased. I would like to say thank you to all the players. It was marvelous to see.''